Singapore Press Holdings 2013 Full Year Profit Down 26%

Source

The result is for 01 Sep 2012 to 31 Aug 2013.

Profit after taxation (S$000)
2013 434,302
2012 586,648

Dividend 2013
Final S$0.08
Special S$0.07
Total S$0.15

Dividend 2012
Final S$0.09
Special S$0.08
Total S$0.17

Total Debt 2013 (S$000)
2,721 + 872,495 + 865,727 = 1,740,943

Total Debt 2012 (S$000)
3,293 + 301,582 + 978,740 = 1,283,615

Long-Term Debt 2013 (S$000)
872,495 + 865,727 = 1,738,222

Long-Term Debt 2012 (S$000)
301,582 + 978,740 = 1,280,322

Total Asset (S$000)
2013 6,373,354
2012 5,485,359

Total Liability (S$000)
2013 2,157,648
2012 1,732,183

Total Equity (S$000)
2013 4,215,706
2012 3,753,176

Gearing Ratio 2013
Total Debt / Total Asset = 0.27
Total Debt / Total Equity = 0.41
Long-Term Debt / Total Equity =  0.41

Gearing Ratio 2012
Total Debt / Total Asset = 0.23
Total Debt / Total Equity = 0.34
Long-Term Debt / Total Equity =  0.34

Their foundation is still very strong, but their newspaper and magazine revenue is declining, nowadays with the computer and internet, who needs hard-copies, even the older generation is picking up IT and updating themselves using forums, news site like Yahoo, no wonder they are moving into property business, that's a good move though, I think if their share price drop below S$4 can buy, S$4 and above I find it expensive, as at 11 Oct is S$4.12, have chance, maybe during dividend period will drop, or can wait until XD.

Learning About Gearing Ratio

If you surf the internet while researching on your favourite stocks, no doubt you will eventually come across this term "Gearing Ratio", so what is it? Basically this tells people how much the company is borrowing to fund its business, too high means the company is at risk because it is over-leveraging, one good example is Lehman Brothers, before their collapse, they were owing way more than they were owning, so when they went bankrupt, there was nothing left to give back to shareholders, a lot of people lost their life savings.

In the first place if they didn't over-leverage so much, they probably wouldn't have collapsed. If you do a Google search on "lehman brother over-leverage", sources say they leverage from 30-35 to 1, that means for every $1 they own, they owe $30 to $35.

There are also a few ways to calculate a company's gearing ratio, but let's look at the Debt-to-Equity Ratio, where Equity means Shareholder's Equity. We will use the Total Debt and Long-Term Debt ratios.

You may also be thinking how high is too high, this you will need to compare with different companies in the same industry, the lowest in the industry would be the low point, the highest in the industry would be the high point. Following I'm comparing REITs of different industries, later on you may want to try to compare maybe purely for Industrial, or purely Retail.

Lippo Malls Indonesia Retails Trust (2013 Second Quarter Results) - Retail

Total Debt / Equity = 462,875 / 1,245,720 = 0.37

For every S$1 of equity, they have S$0.37 debt.

Long-Term Debt / Equity  = 318,371 / 1,245,720 = 0.25

For every S$1 of equity, they have S$0.25 long-term debt.

Equity is found at Unitholders' funds at page 4.
Total Debt is found at Total borrowings at page 4.
Long-Term Debt is found at Total unsecured borrowings at page 4.

CDL Hospitality Trusts (2013 Second Quarter Results) - Hotel

Total Debt / Equity = 676,094 / 1,555,751 = 0.43

For every S$1 of equity, they have S$0.43 debt.

Long-Term Debt / Equity  = 383,725 / 1,555,751 = 0.24

For every S$1 of equity, they have S$0.24 long-term debt.

Equity is found at Unitholders' funds at page 10.
Total Debt is found at Total borrowings at page 12.
Long-Term Debt is found at Amount repayable after one year at page 12.

Cambridge Industrial Trust (2013 Second Quarter Results) - Industrial

Total Debt / Equity = 472,543 / 824,390 = 0.57

For every S$1 of equity, they have S$0.57 debt.

Long-Term Debt / Equity  = (117,165 + 49,590) / 824,390 = 0.20

For every S$1 of equity, they have S$0.20 long-term debt.

Equity is found at Unitholders' funds at page 12.
Total Debt is found at Total borrowings at page 15.
Long-Term Debt is found at Amount repayable after one year for secured and unsecured at page 15.

Obviously these 3 companies are much less risky compared to Lehman Brothers.

Bought Cambridge Industrial Trust at S$0.68

Bought 10 lots today, wanted to buy with CPF too but DBS Vickers didn't raise my buy limit, I think maybe it's due to the SingTel fire, something wrong with their email, should have called them but was stuck in a meeting, or wait Monday see how, who knows it will drop, then even better to enter with CPF.

I like this trust because it has many properties in Singapore and the dividend yield is high at 7%+ and has an increasing trend so far, was thinking of buying Sabana or Lippo Malls, but their prices increased beyond my target, I thought maybe as we get closer to the US debt limit deadline on 17 Oct STI might go down, but well, it kept going up since 07 Oct, I guess people are very sure the US won't default on their debts.

But imagine the US went on to default on their debts, I think all stock markets will crash, so what will I do if STI crash? I'll wait, I won't cut loss, no point, instead I will buy more if I have spare cash, actually it doesn't really matter since I have fully paid for my shares, I'm not doing contra so I have the holding power.

I remember in late 2007, I bought this unit trust called "Fidelity South East Asia Fund (A-USD)", I bought it at the peak price of S$10+ using my CPF through the recommendation of a friend's colleague, then a few months later, world markets crashed, I saw the price drop to a low of S$2+, I didn't do anything, I waited till mid 2012 before I sold at S$6 or S$7+, but I still lost money, imagine that time I have the money to average down, buy more at S$2+, I could end up making a profit instead. Looking back, that time I was ignorant and poor, but I learned a few valuable things that no money can buy.

1. Always keep myself updated on world and business news.
2. Never trust other people with my finance.
3. Never buy a product without knowing it.
4. Never buy unit trust (again).

Luckily in 2006, I bought a China unit trust through the recommendation of a good friend (his colleague was the one who recommended me the Fidelity fund at peak price), forgot the name but it was during the China boom period, it's like anything you buy related to China will earn you big bucks, I earned enough to breakeven from the losses of my Fidelity fund, with CPF interest factored in all the way to 2012, I was damn lucky to get through the worst financial crisis seen by mankind without losing an arm or leg, but at time I read of people losing their entire retirement funds, 5 to 6 digit sums, very sad.

SingTel Internet Exchange Fire

Wow, there really is a fire, yesterday I overheard my colleagues talking about SingTel on fire, I thought it's some kind of new F1 promotion they are running, seems like many people were affected, from consumers to corporates, even DBS and Starhub were affected, but how come I didn't feel the damage, I was still happily using my fibre connection yesterday, my dad was watching cable TV, or maybe my line wasn't damaged or they rectified very quickly.

I wonder if SingTel will be fined for this, I'm more curious as to how the fire started, how can it just start burning like this, maybe a sabotage?

Anyway, it didn't seem to affect SingTel's share price, closed flat at S$3.75 today.

Submitted My Wife's PR Applicaton Today

No hiccup, everything was smooth and we didn't wait too long until our turn, the officer said to wait between 4 to 5 months, I really hope my wife can get PR this time, if reject again, I will definitely appeal, I will want to know why, I will not allow them to happily reject me without giving any reason again.

While at ICA, saw quite a few Singaporean guys with their foreign spouse also applying for PR, have Chinese, Vietnam, Indonesian, Thai, and also saw many foreign families applying for PR, Indians, Filipinos, Chinese, I wonder who will be the lucky ones, almost felt like entering a lucky draw.

Looking back, this is the second time my wife is trying for PR, last time we tried was in May 2011, that time I was earning S$2850, now S$3480, my salary has increased about 18.1% over the course of 2 years and 5 months, I really hope this helps because this shows that financially I have no problem taking care of my wife, what else would I need to prove? If talking about years of residency, my wife has been staying here permanently since our marriage in Sep 2010, that's slightly more than 3 years, it is telling that we intend to settle down here in Singapore.

Correction: The officer said to wait between 4-5 months, not 4-6 weeks.

Asiasons, Blumont and LionGold Share Price Continue to Plunge

Last Friday they suffered massive losses in their share price, today they took another hit. I hope nobody was doing contra during this time, the kind of losses we are looking at here is massive, more than 90% of your capital would be wiped out. These stocks are very risky, I have no idea how their prices even managed to get so high in the first place and the plunge last Friday was jaw-dropping.

Heavy Losses

I feel sorry for those who didn't get to sell before the plunge, or those who averaged down, even though I'm not invested but I feel heartache for their shareholders who probably are ordinary people like me, so much hard-earned money gone in just two days of trading. I hope SGX and MAS would thoroughly investigate this, there's just too much that has not been explained, a company's share price won't just drop from the sky for nothing, very fishy.

By the way, STI closed at 3136 today, seems like getting lower and lower thanks to the US government shutdown, I think as usual they will drag until 17 Oct which is their debt limit deadline before they panic and come out with a last-minute agreement.

Asiasons, Blumont and LionGold Trading Halted

If you look at their 1-year charts, their share price surged so fast so furious, and then last Friday their prices dropped from the sky, I wonder what's going on, those who bought at the peak price must have had a heart attack, that's why never ride on a bull, last week I was still looking up on LionGold's business because I was thinking of investing in some gold products, lucky I never took action, but then again, even if I really want to invest in gold, I would probably open a Gold Savings Account at UOB and buy using my CPF.

Down Double Digit %

Anyway, I promised myself not to dabble in such high-risk stocks again, my first and last such gamble was with Olam, lucky I only bought 1 lot so the impact was very minimal. Also note that this kind of stock does not give out much dividend, some don't even give, which makes it even more risky because when the price goes down, you have no choice but to hold on, or sell at a loss, but if they give decent and regular dividend, holding on might not be that bad.